Archive for the ‘slot cars’ tag

There are numerous problems with buying a race track of your very own: They’re phenomenally expensive to purchase, difficult to insure and generally require a full-time staff to keep up with the constant maintenance that miles of asphalt requires. For most of us, the closest we’ll ever come is a plywood table in the basement, wrapped in AstroTurf, with a 1/32-scale electric setup layout firmly nailed to the surface. Sure, companies like Slot Mods offer impressive pre-built layouts, but the prices are staggering: Neiman Marcus is offering a 30-foot by 12-foot Slot Mods raceway in its 2014 Christmas catalog, but the price (which includes an inaugural night party with Vic Elford or David Hobbs) is a jaw-dropping $300,000. What if we told you a smaller Slot Mods layout was about to hit the auction block, in time for holiday giving, at a fraction of the price?

Sure, the Cloverleaf Raceway layout to be offered in the upcoming Auctions America “Bid Anywhere” sale is smaller, but still measures 15.5-feet by 6.5-feet, which is likely a more manageable size for most basements or living rooms. Yes, it’s pre-owned, having originally been built for Cloverleaf Auto Services in 2010, but that can be seen as a plus, too: Haven’t all the bugs been worked out by the previous owner? Described as “exquisite” in the auction catalog, the track itself looks to be a challenging one, with several elevation changes, S-curves and decreasing radius corners. It’s three-lanes wide, too, which is something you won’t find in many off-the shelf slot car track layouts.

And then there’s the scenery. Slot Mods has long been known for its attention to detail, and the layout up for grabs certainly doesn’t disappoint. From the lush vegetation to the trackside cliffs (of which the FIA would never approve), the layout looks much like a short, fictional, real-world mountain road course, rendered in 1/32-scale. Unlike real race tracks, this one can be split into two pieces for easier transportation, and its grass never needs to be mowed.

How much this particular race track will impact your budget will be determined on Friday, November 21, but Auctions America predicts a selling price between $10,000 and $15,000. On the high end, that’s still 1/20 of the price that Neiman Marcus wants for its own Slot Mods setup, but admittedly this track doesn’t come with a break-in session by David Hobbs. At the end of the day, is his commenting on your “large attachments” as you out-brake him into a corner really worth $285,000?

The Bid Anywhere sale will take place on Friday, November 21; for additional details, visit AuctionsAmerica.com.

UPDATE (26.November): The Slot Mods Cloverleaf Raceway sold for $14,500, including buyer’s fees.

* Over on Dean’s Garage, Gary Smith has photos and Pete Phillips has the story on the re-creation of the 1954 Buick Wildcat II Motorama show car, though a re-creation that’s far more driveable than the original.

* In its collections, The Henry Ford has a neat little assemblage of slot cars which it’s now photographed and added to its online archives.

* Speaking of toys, if you didn’t see the news earlier this week, Lego is releasing an original Mini set.

Issue number 30, the 1978 Auto World catalog. Image courtesy of VSRNOnline.com.

The late 1960s and early 1970s are often seen as the glory days of racing in the United States, with legendary series like Can-Am, Trans-Am and IMSA GTO vying for the attention of race fans. For those of us who grew up in families without a passion for racing, it was a frustrating time; old enough to appreciate the thrills that racing had to deliver, we were too young to get ourselves to the races, and too young to climb behind the wheel of an actual race car. Our primary outlet, then, came in the form of a mail-order catalog from a hobby shop in Scranton, Pennsylvania: Oscar Koveleski’s Auto World.

Roughly once per year, a new Auto World catalog would arrive in our mailboxes or at newsstands, filled from cover to cover with slot cars and go-fast parts, as well as model cars, supplies, and full-length articles on everything from tuning slot cars to detailing plastic models. The 1974 catalog (its 25th edition) featured articles on how to wire and plumb scale model engines for added realism and build functional front suspensions for scale model dragsters. If your passion also ran to two wheels, the same issue would sell you a $14.50 “Top Fueler Drag Fork” to convert an ordinary bicycle into a “California Chopper.” For added realism, another $4.95 would buy a functioning “California Drag Chute,” which packed into a “guaranteed unbreakable storage box;” once the initial thrill of sudden deceleration wore off, it’s hard to imagine users deploying (and hence, repacking) the chute on a regular basis. The 30th edition of the catalog, issued in 1978, featured stories on how to build an HO-scale replica of Watkins Glen and how to craft HO-scale car bodies out of heavy-duty aluminum foil, ideal for those seeking added rubbing-is-racing realism.

Founded in 1958 by Bob Smith and Oscar Koveleski–the Can-Am driver who would also co-found the Polish Racing Drivers of America (PRDA), compete in the original Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash (driving a van loaded with five 55-gallon drums of Can Am racing fuel, along with Tony Adamowicz and Brad Niemcek) and at one point own Shelby Cobra Daytona CSX2287–Auto World began as a mail-order business. Its first catalog, issued in 1959, was a modest effort, assembled by the Koveleski family in its kitchen, but subsequent releases grew in content and effort. By the third edition, in 1961, full-color printing graced the cover, and when the slot car craze began to take off in 1966, the catalog expanded from digest size to magazine size. Through the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, Auto World offered something of interest for hobbyists of all ages and skill levels, but by the beginning of the 1990s, sales were no longer sufficient to maintain a business. The last catalog, edition 41, rolled off the presses in 1991, though the name and logo were later acquired by a new company (AutoWorldHobby.com) specializing in die cast models and slot cars.

Auto World’s original surge in popularity and later decline mirrored the growth and death of the slot car and plastic model hobby in the United States. In the 1970s, hobby shops were a common sight in towns across America, but today plastic model kits are generally sold through craft stores, tucked into a corner between woodburning supplies and wreath-making material. Slot cars can be even harder to find, with only a handful of specialty suppliers serving the HO and 1/32 scale market.

Though nostalgia alone may make for a poor business model, it’s hard to think back on those days without cracking a smile. The original Auto World may be gone, but for anyone who subscribed to its annual catalog, it’s hardly forgotten.

One could easily spend days browsing slot car track videos online – there seems to be an endless supply of extremely inventive slot car enthusiasts showing off tracks such as the one shown here, inspired by Ken Block’s gymkhana videos and built by Youtuber sigfurniture.

* You may have heard of Camille Jenatzy: At the helm of his La Jamais Contente electric-powered automobile, he set the world land speed record in 1899 and became the first man to break the 60 MPH barrier. He also had a prolific racing career and died under quite unusual circumstances, as we see from Howard Kroplick’s profile on Jenatzy on The Vanderbilt Cup Races blog.

* One of the more aggressive-looking fiberglass-bodied cars was the Kellison, and Geoff Hacker over at Forgotten Fiberglass this week treated us to scans of a Kellison brochure for the J-3 and J-4 from the late 1950s.

* Sad news came to us this week from Allpar, which reported the death of Pete Hagenbuch, a Chrysler engineer, who worked on the 426 Hemi, the B/RB-series big-block V-8s, the LA-series small-block V-8s and the Australian Hemi six-cylinder, and built slot cars – from scratch – in his off time.

* Finally, another automaker employee’s personal project, this one the Saab Facett, which Saab designer Sigvard Sorenson built from one of the six Sonett 1s. IEDEI has the story.